Stanley #3 with sand colored finish, is it original?

[Mike Cornwall]

418923418924Picked up a type8 No.3 plane out in the desert, has this desert sand kinda paint on the bed and sides. I assumed it was just vandalism but when I disassembled the plane it looked like maybe it was a factory job. Thought I’d ask if that’s a thing just for curiosity’s sake. Hard to get the color right in the photo

[Jim Koepke]

Mike,

It looks like a home shop paint job to me. Stanley did japan the lever caps on their transitional planes. There also seems to be some traces of black Japanning under the beige paint. finally, not many or the Stanley/Bailey planes were painted on the outside.

Notice the paint (Japanning) on the frog is black.

Many folks custom color their own planes to identify them if they work in a shop. Some folks after a rehab like to make the color their own.

jtk

[steven c newman]

Wonder if a Combat Engineer Carpenter may have lost it.....

[Edward Dyas]

To me it looks like someone used rattle can paint on it. Then over time the paint was nicked a lot and is rusting. I think more of it was raw metal and what is painted was a dark brown or black.

[Mike Cornwall]

Maybe what I should have asked is: were there any odd circumstances under which a plane would have gotten a tan finish from the factory?

[Mike Henderson]

Maybe what I should have asked is: were there any odd circumstances under which a plane would have gotten a tan finish from the factory?

Highly unlikely.

Mike

[Stew Denton]

Mike,

I am with Jim and the rest. The old Stanley planes, certainly the type 8 had the inside body of the plane, the bed, frog sides, etc., Japanned. That was a deep long lasting black finish. As Jim pointed out, you can see the Japanning on the inside of the frog, where the machine bolts that hold the frog to the bed fit. I don't believe that Stanley had any other finish, and certainly none on the cheeks of the planes.

As Jim also points out you can see black Japanning under where the tan paint has flaked off.

I don't think Stanley would have painted that plane that way......from my perspective 0.00000% chance Stanley did that paint job.

Regards,

Stew